Machine for shelling corn



.UNITED STATES PATENT oEEIcE.

RUFUS PORTER,` or BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS. j

MACHINE Eon sHELLnvG comi.

Speccation, of Letters Patent No. 912, dated September 12,` .1838,

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I,- RUFUS PORTER, of Billerica, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Machine for Shelling Corn, and that the following is an exactdescription of said machine.

A wheel or pulley (A A A Figure l) six inches in diameter and l one inch thick, is made of wood, and has a deep groove in its periphery to receive a round band, by which it is put in motion; the diameter of the back of the pulley is reduced to four inches, and through the center is a round hole, two inches in diameter.

are attached to the front of the pulley by screws. A circular plate of brass, having three semicircular projections, (D D D) is attached by screws to the fronts of the blocks: this plate is hollow, and has a tubuylar projection (I I) three inches in diameter, extending half an inch to the front from the centerward edge of the plate. Another circular plate, with a tubular proj ection two inches in diameter, is attached to the backside of the pulley. These tubular projections serve as axles or journals on which the pulley revolves. Three springs, consisting of pieces of steel plate, nine inches long and three fourths of an inch wide, are attached by screws (G, II, Fig. 1) to the blocks B; these springs are bent over the outward ends of the blocks at C C C, and the extreme ends of the springs are brought to a position (E E E) near the center of the pulley, forming a triangle (F) and are prevented from springing out, by threepins fixed in the pulley near the center. From the front edge of each spring at E, is a hook or projection in the form of a sawtooth, (see A, Fig. 2, which is a full size representation of one of these springs.) It is by means of these projections that the shelling is effected; for when the pulley is made to revolve, and the end of an ear of corn is made to enter the triangle, these projections or hooks, passing around the Vcob, detach the corn therefrom; and each spring being free to bend toward its respective block, the triangle may be enlarged according to the size of the cob in its passage through it. This pulley (which with blocks, springs and axles combined, as represented 1n Fig. l constitutes what is termed the shelling wheel,) is inclosed in a box twelve Three blocks (B B B' Fig. l) four inches long, and one inch thick,

inches long, three inches wide and nine inches deep, (A A A A, Fig. 3) through the fro-nt and back of which, are holes which serve as bearings for the hollowv journals, through the front of which may be seen (at F, Fig. 8,) the shelling triangle. This box is attached to the front of a frame (B B B B, Figs. 3, and 4.) to the back of which, also is attached, about twenty inches'from the box, a vertical cross-bar,.(F, Fig. 4) from the front of which a pin projects horizontally to the front, and serves as an axle on which a band-wheel (C, Fig. A3,) is mounted. The band-wheel has a groove in its periphery, and a band passes over the wheel and the pulley, crossing` itself within the box, (through the end of which it passes) whereby the pulley receives a motion reverse to that of the wheel. Two horizontal Vshafts (E E, Figs. 3, and 4) extend from the cross-bar F to a smaller cross-bar (I,

Fig. 4,) near the end of the frame; each tend from these small pins, to opposite l sides of the frame in a manner to draw the two shafts toward each other. Each shaft is larger at the part K K,l 4) that passes near the rear center of the pulley than elsewhere, and this part is set with small teeth or spikes for the purpose of taking, holding, and drawing through the Sheller, the cob of the corn that is being shelled; hence also the utility of the spiral springs.`

`A bevel-gear wheel, three inches in diameter, (G, Figs. 4 and 5) is mounted on the end of one of the shafts, and takes to the teeth of another gear-wheel, two inches in diameter, which is attached to the rear of handle D, and with the right hand; While` with the left hand, the ears of corn are entered at the front hollow journal, and passed through the triangle V(F, Figs. 1 and 3) formed by the hook springs, which readabove described, and in combination thereiiy separate the corn, which falls through with the shaft, having spikes on their sur- 10 an aperture in the bottom of the boX, While faces in manner and for the purpose above the cobs pass between the shafts, and are described.

thrown back from the machine. v RUFUS PORTER.

What I claim as my invention, and desire Witnesses:

to secure by Letters Patent, is- STEPHEN T. PORTER,

The construction of the shelling Wheel as JOHN BALDWIN. 

